#22.2.22

A video mapping piece dedicated to the history of the Monument to Giuseppe Verdi, created for the opening ceremony of the Festival Verdi 2016. Inaugurated in 1920 and demolished twenty-four years later following an air raid, the Monument was strongly championed by the city of Parma to celebrate the centenary of the birth of its most illustrious citizen. The construction date was mistakenly cited as “22.2.22” in a newspaper article some years later, feeding the mythic aura of the vanished building — an idea the show’s title plays on.

The façade of the Palazzo della Pilotta (next to which the monument’s central altar, all that remains of it, was relocated) comes alive with archival footage alternating with cinematic and pictorial images from the last century, set to the musical fabric of four Verdi operas (La Battaglia di Legnano, Aida, Macbeth and I Masnadieri), reworked for the occasion in an electronic key by Optogram. The four-act dramaturgy follows the story of the Monument: construction, inauguration, injury, and finally destruction.

A tribute to Verdi’s genius in an immersive audiovisual flow, conceived and produced by Giovanni Sparano in collaboration with Barezzi Festival.